HO3S-1G

The museum aircraft entered service in 1950 and flew entirely with the Coast Guard, including a September 4, 1951, mission in which the pilot deployed its flotation bags to land in the Atlantic Ocean to pull an Air Force pilot from the water after he parachuted from his plane.  The original purchase price for an HO3S was less than $92,000 and the type entered service in Naval Aviation in 1946, one of its first missions being support of Operation Highjump, an expedition to Antarctica.  The first helicopter pilot to receive the Medal of Honor, Lieutenant (junior grade) John Koelsch, was an HO3S pilot shot down during an attempted rescue of a downed Marine pilot in Korea and died while a prisoner of war.